Spike Lee on his Oscar win, Chadwick Boseman, and if there's a comic book movie in his future

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What did you do after your first Oscar win in 2019?

SPIKE LEE:The morning after, I’m on a plane to Thailand to beginDa 5 Bloods.

My lovely wife, Tonya, took the Oscar back to Brooklyn.

That film has one ofChadwick Boseman’s last performances.

How did it feel learning that?

Chadwick meant a lot to people.

I knew he would be great inDa 5 Bloodsbecause Stormin' Norman is a heroic character.

Chadwick comes with that kind of weight.

It was a different film.

I had a debate with one of my boys.

I argued that Delroy Lindo was Robert De Niro to your Martin Scorsese.

Hold up… so where’s Denzel then?

So let me ask you a question.

When have you ever seen a performance like Denzel did inMalcolm X?

[Laughs] See, you answered the question.

Did you feel that as a weight on your shoulders?

The only pressure I felt was onMalcolm X.

Me and Denzel used to say, “Hey, bro, you got your passport on you?”

Just in case we had to break out under the cover of darkness.

[Laughs] Now, we were joking, but we were serious at the same time.

Before filming, I had to meet with [the Nation of Islam].

It almost broke me.

Warner Bros. let the bond company take over, and they fired everybody.

But Malcolm saved me.

I read and saw everything about Malcolm X.

Two things kept coming into my mind: self-reliance and self-determination.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I knew I had the private phone numbers of some Black folks who I could ask for help.

This wasn’t a tax write-off, and they weren’t going to get money from the film.

It was just a gift.

I watched it on November 16th [last year], which was the 20th anniversary.

Keith, here’s the thing.

If you stick around long enough, kids are going to see your work.

Kids are discovering Jay-Z and Tupac.

I’m a tenured film professor at NYU grad school.

What I tell my students is, “Don’t let the cutoff point be your birthdate.

Believe it or not, there’s some great shit created before you were born.

And some of those films may be in black and white too.”

Some of your directing brethren have dismissed Marvel movies as not legit filmmaking.

I have nothing against Marvel.

I grew up readingSpider-Mancomic books.

To me, DC Comics was always corny.

Oh, are you trying to get the Marvel and DC stans at each other throats?

[Laughs] I’m just saying.

I was all about Marvel.

EW’sA Celebration of Black Filmis available onAmazonand wherever magazines are sold.